Pappas, Colleagues File Brief Calling on SCOTUS to Uphold Constitutional Conversion Therapy Bans
Yesterday Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01), Co-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, joined 187 of his colleagues, including Congressional Equality Caucus Chair Rep. Mark Takano (CA-39), Congressional Equality Caucus Vice Chair & House Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Rep. Ted Lieu (CA-36), and Senator Jeff Merkley (OR) in filing an amicus brief urging the United States Supreme Court to uphold the constitutionality of Colorado’s ban on mental health professionals engaging in conversion therapy for minors in the case of Chiles v. Salazar.
A total of 167 Members of the House of Representatives and 20 United States Senators joined the brief, including House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), House Democratic Whip Katherine M. Clark (MA-05), House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (CA-33), Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (CA-11), and every Co-Chair and Vice Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus. Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander (NH-02) also joined the brief.
“No one should be a second-class citizen in the United States, and everyone deserves the opportunity to participate fully in their community and to live free from discrimination and the harm it brings. That discrimination must not be allowed to continue under any circumstance, but especially not under the guise of legitimate medical treatment,” said Congressman Pappas. “That’s why the unethical practice of ‘conversion therapy,’ which is proven to harm the well-being of our kids and has been condemned by all our major medical and mental health care organizations, has been restricted or banned by a majority of states. These bans are legal, and the Court must uphold them as we continue fighting to advance legislation that will ensure all Americans have the same rights, responsibilities, and opportunities."
“Here in the Live Free or Die state, we know that everyone deserves equal protection under the law, no matter who you are or who you love,” said Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander, a member of the Rapid Response and Litigation Task Force. “That’s the fundamental American idea we’re advocating for in this legal brief to the United States Supreme Court.”
"Conversion therapy has no place in any therapeutic setting. It is long-disproven, unethical, and deeply traumatic to the young people forced to endure it,” said Jennifer Pike Bailey, Director of Government Affairs at the Human Rights Campaign. “Thank you to the Members of Congress who are standing with LGBTQ+ youth and their families in urging the Supreme Court to uphold Colorado’s protections against conversion therapy."
Background:
The Petitioner in the case of Chiles v. Salazar is a licensed professional counselor who filed a pre-enforcement challenge against the state’s ban on conversion therapy, arguing the ban violates her freedom of speech. The members’ brief argues that the law is constitutional. It explicitly highlights how legislatures have historically regulated professional conduct through language to enforce compliance with professional standards, and how Courts have historically upheld federal and state statutes regulating professional conduct that incidentally involves speech.
“Conversion therapy” refers to the range of discredited practices that have long been known to cause significant and lasting psychological harm to patients by purportedly forcing patients to change their sexual orientation or gender identity. These practices are often aimed at minors, and evidence shows that LGBTQ+ youth who undergo conversion therapy are more than twice as likely to report having attempted suicide compared to those who did not.
All major U.S. medical or mental healthcare associations have condemned conversion therapy, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Family Physicians. As of August 2025, 23 states and D.C. entirely prohibit, and 4 states and Puerto Rico restrict, licensed healthcare providers from subjecting minors to conversion therapy.
Pappas serves as Co-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus and is New Hampshire’s first openly gay member of Congress. In his role as Co-Chair of the Equality Caucus, he has helped to introduce and pass the Equality Act through the House of Representatives and enact the Respect for Marriage Act into law. Pappas also leads the LGBTQ+ Panic Defense Prohibition Act, which would ban the use of panic defenses based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression in federal courts; the SERVE Act, which would guarantee and protect VA benefits for LGBTQ+ veterans discharged under discriminatory policies; and led successful calls for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reassess policy that blocked members of the LGBTQ+ community from donating blood.
In response to President Trump’s Executive Order banning transgender individuals from serving in the military, Pappas has been an outspoken advocate for trans servicemembers, including leading an appropriations request to prohibit any funding for the Department of Defense to implement the ban, and he is a cosponsor of the Fit to Serve Act, legislation to prohibit discrimination in the Armed Forces on the basis of gender identity.